The Swansea Free Public Library provides a contemporary, relevant collection of resources in a range of formats to meet the informational, educational, recreational, and cultural needs of its community. The Library strives to meet these needs within the limitations of space, staffing, and budget. The Library endeavors to make use of new technologies and formats to offer library users the greatest access to information and ideas.

The Library maintains a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction. Materials and formats are not maintained past their relevance. This ensures a collection of interest to our patrons. Textbooks and materials of a highly technical or specialized nature more appropriate for research or special libraries are generally excluded from the collection.

The Library recognizes that there are ideas, opinions, viewpoints and philosophies which are subject for discussion and debate and that any community will be made up of citizens with divergent viewpoints. The Library endeavors to provide equal access to all points of view within the limits of financial resources and physical space. When judging the merit of materials for purchase, Library staff refer to professional review publications, news media, recommended lists by professional organizations, patron requests, literary awards, and the popularity of similar items.

Materials for children and teenagers are intended to broaden their vision, support recreational reading, encourage and facilitate reading skills, supplement their educational needs, stimulate and widen their interests, lead to recognition and appreciation of literature, and reflect the diversity of the community. The reading and viewing activity of children is ultimately the responsibility of parents or legal guardians, who guide and oversee their own children's development. The Swansea Free Public Library does not intrude on that relationship.

Guidelines for Materials Selection
Collection development is based on these specific criteria:

Community needs, interests, and demands

The importance of subject matter to the collection

Price and availability for purchase

Responsibility for Selection

The ultimate responsibility for materials selection rests with the Library Director, who operates within the framework of policies determined by the Library Board of Trustees. The Library Director delegates much of the responsibility for materials selection to library staff.

Approved by the Swansea Free Library Board of Trustees, October 18, 2018